The organisers of East London Pride have chosen to not address the Gay-Free Zone controversy, not march through the E1 area and to not stress the need for LGBT-Muslim solidarity. They fear this would stir local division. They might be right. I respect their decision.
However, given the recent controversies, I believe it is very important that we reach out to the Muslim community in East London – and unite with them against Islamophobia and homophobia. Making local alliances and coalitions is the best way to conquer hate and division.
Nevertheless, please support East London Pride:http://www.eastlondonpride.org.uk

What do you expect, they did everything possible to stop any action when the posters went up, instead chose to pan and stop others from doing anything.
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What makes you think they’ll act in our interests now and more to the point why? They fail before and they ain’t gonna change, sadly and unfortunate for all LGBTQI people living within these areas..

I wish leading Muslim organisations – like the Muslim Council of Britain and the East London Mosque – had been invited to speak at the post-march festival. Since they’ve declared their opposition to homophobia, they should be invited. If these organisations and the Muslim Mayor of Tower Hamlets attended, it would send a strong, positive signal locally. Their involvement would be a powerful statement against both homophobia and anti-Muslim prejudice. It would build bridges.

I agree these actions would be positive and could encourage more wider community cohesion. I suspect we are not quite at the point given recent events that the Mayor and many Muslim organisations would be confident to make such stands, nor that many LGBT people would trust such a stand as being either legitimate or honest. I think there needs to be more confidence building on both sides before such public dynamic statements are likely to be made.

I dont use racist homophobic or offensive language. here is my coment or part of it.
It’s unfortunate that I have been misquoted. I would like to address that matter.

I stated that “I feel there is a need to address the issue of Homophobia and the need for the issue to be shared with all faith groups. I am glad there is a discussion on Racism and Islamaphobia as well as one on Trans issues, which need to be addressed by our own community. I have never used the term Muslim Homophobia and feel it is an Islamaphobic term.

I am disappointed that the Mosque has not been included and I urged for this at the organising meetings. We can not bury our head in the sand and pretend there are not issues between Faith Group Leaders, which includes the Mosque, Church other centres of Faith and the LGBTQ community. Jack Gilbert is right this is not a conference, but there are three debates and one of those should have been on Homophobia.

I don’t know if this page is being ‘censored’ or not but it’s not nice when people stop you from standing up for yourself is it, Terry?
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Considering you spent most of the year stopping everyone else from doing so after the posters.

There are clearly still a lot of issues to be dealt with in the East End, but these things take time, they take some steps in the right direction, then a few back and then a few forward again – in the end we will get there. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, spending time with people I know and some that I have yet to meet. It will be what we choose to make it in the end – I choose to participate with pride, to celebrate the good work that is being done and to encourage others to do what they can to help move things in the right direction.

If you know of any hunks in gold lame briefs willing to join the parade tell them to come along. I am not sure if their display of soft porn dancing will add to or detract from social cohesion and solidarity but…what he hell, why not. Also we would need a lesbian equivalent for the sake of equality. As for wearing hijabs, as a man, I would be prepared to do this if the authorites forbade the wearing of them as they do in France where muslims are also forbidden to worship outside their mosques.

The police would stop you wearing a hijab. When women on EDL demos have worn burkahs, the police have torn them off their faces. Yet at the 9/11 commemoration 2 weeks ago, not only were muslim women allowed to wear burkahs, many of the muslim men had their faces covered and the police did nothing. EDL men, of course, were forced to remove any face coverings.

Muslims want (and get) a two-tier system. That’s the entire purpose of their public bleating about being victims, whilst in private the assert their hatred and contempt for infidels.

Pride-FAIL: Just returned from East London Pride and I feel some disappointment. Instead of a march of visibility through an area that would prefer not to see Gays, Lesbians, Bi’s and the Transgendered marching out in the open – the parade was sort of hi-jacked by the Socialist Workers. From the size of the biggest banners I’m sure the bewildered locals though we were a bunch of teachers and nurses moaning about the Budget Cuts. Pride-FAIL

Pride could have been bigger. The stalls and workshops at Oxford House were fine but not enough of them. Why should we not protest against cuts in jobs and services especially when they disproportionately affect LGBT people? The area we marched through isn’t any less homophobic than other parts of Hackney/Tower Hamlets except the very posh parts if there are any. The huge banner at the front of the march clearly stated who we were along side placards proclaiming East End Pride. I have posted a couple of photo locations. I hope they come out okay.

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